Congress: Who will be on the Supercommittee?

The Hill handicaps who could be on the “Supercommittee”: “Speculation about who will be selected to serve on the debt ‘supercommittee’ is rampant on Capitol Hill, K Street and Wall Street. The four congressional leaders of the House and Senate have until Aug. 16 to make their appointments. While it is unclear which members will be tapped, Capitol Hill leaders are widely expected to pick party loyalists.”

Five former directors of the Congressional Budget Office tell Bloomberg the trigger fallback is “a flawed device with a history of failure.”

“Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that the House will do away with its page program, a storied tradition that has brought young people to work in the Capitol for nearly as long as Congress itself has been an institution,” Roll Call reports. “Citing high costs and advances in technology that have reduced the need for the program, the Ohio Republican and the California Democrat said in a joint statement that the program — which costs the House more than $5 million, or about $69,000 to $80,000 per page — is outdated.”

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) urges the GOP to hold the line on any tax increases despite the downgrade. “Over the next several months, there will be tremendous pressure on Congress to prove that S&P’s analysis of the inability of the political parties to bridge our differences is wrong,” Cantor wrote Monday in a memo to House Republicans, per The Hill. “In short, there will be pressure to compromise on tax increases. We will be told that there is no other way forward. I respectfully disagree.”